George Etherege - Wikipedia George Etherege From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search For the scholar, see George Etherege (scholar). Sir George Etherege Born c. 1636 Probably Maidenhead, Berkshire, England Died c. 1691 Paris, France Occupation Playwright, poet Literary movement English Restoration Comedy Spouse Mary Arnold[1] ​ ​ (m. 1677⁠–⁠1691)​ Relatives George Etherege (grandfather) George Etherege (father) Mary Etherege, née Powney (mother)[2] Sir George Etherege (c. 1636, Maidenhead, Berkshire – c. 10 May 1692, Paris[3]) was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would if She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.[4] Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Stage success 1.3 The Man of Mode 1.4 Life after the theatre 1.5 Legacy 2 References 3 External links Biography[edit] Early life[edit] George Etherege was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, around 1636, to George Etherege and Mary Powney, as the eldest of six children.[5] Educated at Lord Williams's School, where a school building was later named after him, he was also rumoured to have attended the University of Cambridge,[6] although John Dennis states that to his certain knowledge Etherege understood neither Greek nor Latin,[4] thus raising doubts that he could have been there.[7] Etherege served as an apprentice to a lawyer and later studied law at Clement's Inn, London, one of the Inns of Chancery.[6] He probably travelled abroad to France with his father, who stayed with the exiled queen Henrietta Maria, and may have witnessed in Paris performances of some of Molière's earliest comedies. An allusion in one of his plays suggests he may have been personally acquainted with Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy.[4] Stage success[edit] Soon after the Restoration in 1660, Etherege wrote his comedy of The Comical Revenge or Love in a Tub, which brought him to the attention of Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset. This was performed at the Duke's Theatre in 1664 and a few copies were printed in the same year. It is partly in rhymed heroic verse, like the stilted tragedies of the Howards and Thomas Killigrew, but it contains comic scenes that are notably bright and fresh. The sparring between Sir Frederick and the Widow introduced a style of wit hitherto unknown upon the English stage.[4] The success of this play was very great, but Etherege waited four years before repeating the experiment. Meanwhile he gained a high reputation as a poetical beau and moved in the circle of Sir Charles Sedley, Lord Rochester and other noble wits of the day. His temperament is best shown by the names his contemporaries gave him: "gentle George" and "easy Etheredge". In 1668 he brought out She Would if she Could, a comedy of action, wit and spirit, although by some thought to be frivolous and immoral. Here Etherege first showed himself as a new power in literature. He presents an airy and fantastic world, where flirtation is the only serious business in life. Etherege himself was living a life no less frivolous and unprincipled.[4] The Man of Mode[edit] Frontispiece to The Man of Mode (1676). Between 1668 and 1671 Etherege went to Constantinople as secretary to the English Ambassador, Sir Daniel Harvey. After a silence of eight years, he came forward with only one further play: The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter, widely considered the best comedy of manners written in England before the days of Congreve. It was acted and printed in 1676 and enjoyed success, which may be attributed to the belief that it satirises, or at least refers to well-known contemporaries in London. Sir Fopling Flutter was seen as a portrait of Beau Hewit, the reigning exquisite, Dorimant to be a reference to the Earl of Rochester, and Medley a portrait of Etherege himself (or equally plausible, his fellow playwright and wit, Sir Charles Sedley). Even the drunken shoemaker was a real character, who made his fortune from being brought to public notice in this fashion.[4] Life after the theatre[edit] Etherege was part of the circle of John Wilmot; both men had a daughter by the unmarried actress Elizabeth Barry.[8] (Recently all three have appeared as characters in the 2005 film The Libertine, based on a play by Stephen Jeffreys.) After his success, Etheredge retired from literature, and a few years later lost much of his fortune to gambling. He was knighted at some time before 1679, and married a wealthy widow, Mary Sheppard Arnold. In March 1685, he was appointed resident minister to the Imperial German Court at Ratisbon. After three-and-a-half years' residence there, and after the Glorious Revolution, he left for Paris to join James II in exile. He died in Paris, probably in 1691,[4] as Narcissus Luttrell notes this as a recent event in February 1692, identifying Sir George Etherege as the late King James's Ambassador to Vienna.[4] Etherege's manuscript despatches are preserved in the British Museum, where they were discovered and described by Gosse in 1881.[4] Later editions were produced by Sybil Rosenfeld (1928) and Frederic Bracher (1974). Legacy[edit] Etherege holds a distinguished place in English literature[4] as one of the "big five" in Restoration comedy, who invented the comedy of manners and led the way to the achievements of Congreve and Sheridan. Etherege's portraits of fops and beaux are considered to be the best of their kind. He is noted for his delicate touches of dress, furniture and scene, and a vivid replication of the fine airs of London gentlemen and ladies which may even better Congreve's. His biography was first written in detail by Edmund Gosse in Seventeenth Century Studies (1883).[4] References[edit] ^ A widow whom Etherege is rumoured to have married for her money. (The Dramatic Works of Sir George Etherege, ed. H. F. B. Brett-Smith, 2 vols (1927)). ^ [1][dead link] ^ "Sir George Etherege (British dramatist) - Encyclopædia Britannica". Britannica.com. 3 November 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2014. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Gosse, Edmund (1911). "Etheredge, Sir George". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 807. ^ H. F. B. Brett-Smith, The Dramatic Works of Sir George Etherege. Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1927. pp. xi-lxxxiiii. ^ a b William Oldys, Biographia Britannica. Vol. III, 1750. p. 1841. ^ John Dennis, A Defence Of Sir Fopling Flutter, A Comedy. Pamphlet, London, 2 November 1722. ^ Cambridge Guide to Literature in English External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: George Etherege Works by or about George Etherege at Internet Archive Works by George Etherege at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) v t e Restoration comedy Playwrights Aphra Behn Susanna Centlivre Colley Cibber William Congreve John Dryden George Etherege George Farquhar Edward Howard James Howard Robert Howard Thomas Otway Charles Sedley Thomas Shadwell Thomas Southerne Richard Steele John Vanbrugh George Villiers William Wycherley Notable Plays The Indian Emperour (1665) The Committee; Or, The Faithful Irishman (1665) The Mulberry-Garden (1668) Tarugo's Wiles: or, The Coffee-house (1668) The Rehearsal (1671) Marriage à la mode (1672) The Country Wife (1675) Aureng-zebe (1675) The Plain-Dealer (1676) The Man of Mode (1676) Venice Preserv'd (1682) Bellamira (1687) Love for Love (1700) Love's Last Shift (1696) The Relapse (1696) The Way of the World (1700) The Recruiting Officer (1706) The Beaux' Stratagem (1707) Characters Fop Spark Rake Related People Charles II Jeremy Collier Thomas Hobbes Marquis de Sade Molière James II Georg Monck John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester Related articles Bedlam Chocolate houses Comedy of manners Court Drury Lane Fleet Prison Hedonism The Libertine (1994) The Libertine (film) Libertinism Lincoln's Inn Fields Mode Restoration of Charles II Second Anglo-Dutch War Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage Wit Authority control BIBSYS: 90123946 BNF: cb12026103m (data) GND: 118531255 ISNI: 0000 0001 0883 1018 LCCN: n50009342 NKC: xx0158637 NTA: 068923597 PLWABN: 9810658013505606 SELIBR: 185890 SNAC: w6ms4cbw SUDOC: 028422686 Trove: 817433 VIAF: 29547767 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50009342 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Etherege&oldid=1002013172" Categories: 1630s births 1692 deaths English dramatists and playwrights People educated at Lord Williams's School People from Maidenhead 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights Hidden categories: All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from February 2014 Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Use dmy dates from August 2015 Use British English from August 2015 Articles with Internet Archive links Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikiquote Wikisource Languages Български Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Italiano Nederlands Polski Português Suomi Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 22 January 2021, at 11:45 (UTC). 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